I recently bought a slightly used Ruger 77 M in .22-250. The serial number starts with 77, so I suppose it was made in 1977. I find getting tight groups a challenge with 55 grain bullets, Winchester brass, and CCI 200 primers. I am a ground hog hunting fan. I tried Sierra Bliz King 55 grain boat tail bullets with ballistic tips. Next I will try 55 grain Hornady spitzers, not boat tail. They claim to have strong enough wall thickness to tolerate 3,600 feet per second. I have been using Varget powder, starting at 10% below maximium recommended load of 36.5 grains and working up by 0.5 grains with 5 shots at each load. All groups have been around 2 to 3 inches. I have been extremely pleased with the Hornady 55 grain SX bullets in my old Savage 340D in .222 Rem. It shoots sub inch groups with IMR 4895 powder, Remington brass, and Remington primers. But I learned that the SX bullets cannot tolerate the .22-250 speed of 3600 feet per second. So I tried the Sierra Blitz Kings which claim to handle 4,000 feet per second. I have another Ruger 77 M in .30-06 with which I get sub inch groups at 100 yards, using 150 grain Speer spitzer bullets, IMR 4064 powder, Federal, Remington, or military brass, and CCI-200 primers. SoI expected similar performance in the .22-250. The twist in the .22-250 is 14:1 which I hear is slow for that bullet weight. Has anyone out there been successful with this same gun and caliber? What bullets, powder, primers, and loads did you find worked best, especially with this twist? Is the culprit the heavy bullets? The Varget powder, the brass, or the primers? I use the same CCI-200 primers in my .30-06. What is the ideal weight bullet with 14:1 twist? I presumed that the 55 grain bullet weight which worked well in the .222 would be equal or better in the .22-250. Thanks Bill Goodman>>

My .22-250 is a Savage action with a 26" Hart SS varmint barrel on it.I use 55gr. Nosler Balistic Tips pushed along by 35.2grs. of IMR4064 at 3500fps. It prints in the .2's for 5 shots at 100yds. IMR4064 is almost like a religion for this caliber. It'll far exceed the 3500fps but stainless steel barrels from Hart don't come cheap so I hold the velocity down a bit. Either Rem. 9 1/2 or Fed. 210M will do nicely. Varget works well in my rifle also, about 37. grs. Best wishes.

Here is an update on my earlier post about my Ruger 77 M in .22-250 caliber. It has a sport barrel, not a bull barrel. I do not want to lug such weight around the farm fields. Cal, thank you for your reply.

I switched from Sierra Blitz King 55 grain boat tail bullets to Horandy 55 grain flat based spitzer bullets. My groups immediate reduced from 2 to 3 inches to under 1/2 inches with several different powder loads. Several shots went into the same holes! I am delighted. Several ammo dealers suggested that the Blitz King may not handle the 3,600 feet per second velocity. Sierra's manual says that it can. Hornady states not to use their 55 grain SX bullets at 3,600 fps, because they will shred at that speed. I had been using 55 gr. SX bullets in my Savage 340 D .222 Remington. Both bullets seem to have similar construction, designed to explode on impact, not penetrate. The Hornady 55 gr. spitzer has stronger side walls, similar as to those 150 grain spitzers used in my .30-06. They are stable, accurate, and tough. (I got 8 deer with 7 shots last season.)

The research I and my friends did discovered that my Ruger 77 M has one turn in 14 inches, which is a very slow twist. It probably cannot stabalize the 55 grain boat tail bullet. The flat based 55 grain spitzer has a longer body in contact with the rifling. Some friends suspect that the boat tail may be more accurate at 300 yards, because a boat tail bullet may yawl during the first 100 yards and straighten out the next 200 yards. The gases blow by it as it travels the barrel. The spitzer may be less accurate at 300 yards.

I will eventually experiment and test these theories. The tightest groups with the Hornady were 33.5 grains and 36.0 grains of Varget powder. The other loads were all good too. Next I will shoot 10 more rounds of each, 33.5 and 36.0, and decide which to use. I prefer a lighter load to save barrel wear. I have not received any responses on my query about selection of bullets for Ruger 77 M in .22-250. What bullets and powders are you using for this rifle? Most of my shooting will be at ground hogs under 200 yards.

I had been using a very accurate .222 Remington in an old Savage 340D with a 3 - 9 X 40 mm. scope. My primary reason for switching was to use a 6 - 18 X 40 power scope. The Savage cannot hold a bigger scope. It uses Weaver side mounts, which do not allow sufficient space for the boss around the scopes.

I was very impressed with the new Savage rifles at the NRA convention in April. Their new triggers are sweet. I believe they are called "Accu-Trigger". I have the brochures, but not here at my office computer. My Ruger came with a 9 pound pull. A local gun smith adjusted it to 3.5 pounds, which is much better but it is still a little stiff. My Savage 340D trigger is extremely smooth, remarkable for an old and inexpensive rifle. I did not measure its pull weight.

I studied the burn rates of other powders, RL-?, IMR 3031, IMR 4895, IMR 4064, and H-350. All seemed very close to the Varget. Friends use all of them with success. Should I switch? I am happy with IMR 4895 in the .222 Rem. i use the IMR 4064 in my .30-06. Should I switch from Varget to IMR 4064 for the .22-250. Or am I getting the best possible results with such a sporting rifle. It is not a target rifle.

I do not know how to match barrel twist rate to powder burn speed. I wish we could use a software program to select which bullet for a given powder and twist rate. Has anyone done that?

As you know no two rifles even if they are the same make will probably not shoot the same reload with the same accuracy. There can be thousands of veriables when it comes to the many different powders, bullets, brass, primers etc. All ya can do is experiment to find a combination of components that will achieve the goal of accuracy that you require. For me the faster or medium fast powders always seem to work best in most of my rifles. My 22-250 likes 31.0 grs. of imr 3031 with a 55 grain hornady v-max. The twist rate is 1 in 14 at 3300 fps. While not a hot load the accuracy is wonderful and consistant. I will always choose accuracy over velocity. My rifle is a rem 700. I have owned this rifle since 1975. I did use seirra spitzer flat base bullets for a long time with good accuracy also. The honady 55 gr. v-max has a flat base and will handle extreme velocity and also will give explosive results at low velocity also. My understanding is that the 50 and 55 gr. bullets are perfect for the 1 in 14 twist with the 55 gr. being preferred. I also love to shoot the prairie poodles and the v-max is very explosive at any range ya can hit em. When I want to find a load for a rifle I choose a powder from the reload manuals then load about 4 rounds each starting at the lowest load data in the book and working up to max. I look for the tightest group shot with that powder--then try different primers--then different bullets if necessary. Also I use a chronagraph to look at standard deviation, velocity spread etc. Usually if the standard deviation is to high I will try a different powder---Eventually you can always find a load that will be accurate. Sometimes you end up spending a lot of time and money on components. But this challange has been fun (sometimes frustrating) for me. Sorry for the length. I hope ya can find some of this useful.

I have a Ruger 77v in 22-250. Its preferences have always been towards 50g ballistic tips. In fact, it shoots the 40g ballistic tips better than it will shoot any 55 boat tail I have tried. It also seems to prefer flat base bullets to boat tails. I've taken rock chucks at well over 500 yds with the 50g ballistic tips. While the eatern woodchucks are larger--I assure you the 50g ballistic tips will more than do the job. My gun shoots particularly well with a good dose of ww760 although rl 15 and varget show some promise. My go to load for chucks and dogs for 10+ years has been the 50g ballistic tips. Interestingly, the barrel appears to be a slow one in that when comparing all of the published data, it takes several more grains of powder to reach published velocities. It's been a good gun-except for that short magazine which limits the ability to play much with longer bullet seating depths. Hope this helps.

I don't shoot a m77 yet but my # 1 b in 22-250 shoots very well for me. The load I use is a speer 52 gr hp,not a hpbt. I use cci magnum pistol primers with 39 gr. of Hodgen 414. I've been using this load for 20 yrs. I still am using the same cases that I annealed when I got them. Try it, it may work in your gun.